


Life Cycle

by madamteatime



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-10
Updated: 2014-02-10
Packaged: 2018-01-11 20:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1177756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamteatime/pseuds/madamteatime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Yunho sees the boy on the bicycle every morning from his window.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life Cycle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anonymous](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonymous/gifts).



> [request] [picture prompt](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BfpLx49CAAA9AJv.jpg:large)

Yunho sees the boy on the bicycle every morning from his window.

He’s younger than him – probably just started high school recently. His polished leather shoes and crisp green and black uniform suggest a wealthy background, so it’s odd to see him cycling to school every day when other rich kids in the area get driven by a chauffer. He’s all long limbs and awkward grace, his soft brown hair falling into big, expressive eyes. 

Yunho sees all this because his window is right above the boy’s daily route to school. At first he notices him by chance, then with interest, then with something bordering on obsession. He notices that sometimes the boy listens to music while be bikes and that sometimes, when he’s running late, he’ll zoom past with a piece of toast in his mouth. 

The boy must like food, because when he cycles home every day he often has snacks in his basket. One time he hits a bump in the road and a cinnamon roll he’s eating flies out of his hand, and the look of devastation on his face is so cute Yunho has to stuff his hands over his mouth to muffle his giggles. 

He tells himself he’s being a creep, watching some random boy cycle past his house every day. But it’s boring being cooped up inside all the time, and at least it gives him something to look forward to every day. He wonders what the boy’s name is, where he lives, what school he’s in, how many siblings he has. 

Yunho wonders a lot of things, many of which have no answers.

It’s a sticky summer afternoon when he decides to give his math tutor the slip. It’s simply too hot to study – he finds Taepoong, his best friend and only companion, and the two of them run into his garden to play. 

“Taepoong fetch!” Yunho calls, throwing a tennis ball, and Taepoong barks joyfully and runs after it. He brings it back with a proud doggy grin on his face and Yunho laughs and scratches behind his ear, cooing praises. 

He throws the ball again but this time his aim is off and the object goes sailing over the garden wall. There’s a thump, then the sound of a crash and a pained cry from the street. Yunho gasps, Taepoong’s barks ringing loudly in his ears as he runs to the front gate.

The boy with the bike is lying in a dazed heap, his cycle on the ground beside him, Taepoong’s ball next to his feet. Yunho wrenches the gate open and Taepoong shoots past him, barking in excitement as he goes over to the fallen boy, who gives a surprised squeak as the husky looms over him.

“Sorry! Oh my god, I’m so sorry, are you okay?” Yunho gasps.

The boy stares up at him with those startled doe eyes and Yunho’s stomach does a strange cartwheel.

“Your dog – ” he stutters as Taepoong casually licks his cheek.

“Oh – Taepoong, no! Down boy,” Yunho shoos him away and Taepoong backs off, his tongue lolling happily out of his mouth.

Yunho reaches a hand down and helps the boy to his feet, and he winces a little as he gets to his feet. 

“W-what just happened?” he asks. 

“We were playing and – I think my ball must have hit you,” Yunho says apologetically. “Are you okay?”

“I – ” He sets his left foot down and cries out in pain, and Yunho quickly catches him before he can fall. “My ankle – ”

“Shit. Um, okay. Let’s get you inside, yeah? And I’ll call Granny to come take a look at it for you.”

He slings the boy’s arm around his shoulders and they hobble along, Taepoong leading the way inside.

\- - -

Turns out it’s a minor sprain. Granny patches him up and offers to take him to the hospital so he can get a proper cast, but the boy – whose name, he shyly tells Yunho, is Shim Changmin – says it’s fine and that he’ll manage. 

Yunho thinks he must have apologised at least hundred times already, but he feels the urge rise again when Changmin gingerly gets to his feet.

“I’m really sorry,” he blurts out. 

Changmin smiles at him. “It’s okay. You can stop apologising now.”

Yunho bites his lip and watches Changmin experimentally hobble around the room.

“Um, your bike. . .” he starts.

Changmin frowns, his lower lip curling out in pout that does strange things to Yunho’s gut. “I think it’s okay, but I won’t be able to ride it home. . .”

He sighs and glances out the window. It’s starting to get dark.

“I’ll walk you home,” Yunho offers quickly. He doesn’t want to see Changmin go just yet, plus he feels a sense of responsibility – the least he can do is make sure the other boy gets home safe.

Changmin blinks those wide brown eyes at him and nods. 

Yunho spends a good ten minutes quietly begging Granny to let him walk Changmin home. He promises to come straight back and reminds her that it’s his fault Changmin’s hurt.

“He wouldn’t be hurt if you hadn’t been skipping your math lesson,” she scolds him, but she relents in the face of Yunho’s pleading puppy eyes and helpless pout.

Changmin is waiting out front for him, his bike at his side. Yunho takes it from him and wheels it along slowly, unable to stop flashing guilty looks at the slight limp in Changmin’s step.

“Does it hurt?” he asks.

Changmin shrugs. “A little. Nothing too bad.”

Yunho thinks Changmin must have a high pain threshold, because he sprained his wrist once and that had hurt like hell. He’s itching to ask Changmin all sorts of questions but Changmin doesn’t seem to be the talkative type, so Yunho quells his curiosity and walks along quietly.

After about fifteen minutes they round the corner and stop in front of a beautiful white mansion. Changmin digs a key out of his pocket and opens the gate, and Yunho gapes.

“Wow. This is where you live?”

“Um,” Changmin ducks his head. “Yeah.”

“Awesome house,” Yunho says frankly.

Changmin looks up at it and doesn’t seem nearly as impressed. “Thanks,” he says glumly.

Yunho doesn’t get it, but he smiles cheerfully and hands Changmin’s bike over. He stands at the gate and waves until Changmin is out of sight, then heads home with a spring in his step.

\- - -

Yunho waits the whole day for it to be afternoon. 

He watches the clock like a hawk, calculates the exact time Changmin will walk past his house, and casually waits in his garden when it’s time.

He almost falls out of a bush when he hears a soft voice behind him.

“What are you doing?” Changmin asks.

Yunho coughs and tries not to look totally creepy. “Uh, nothing.” He glances at Changmin’s foot, neatly wrapped in a fresh cast. “How’s your ankle?”

“It’s okay. The doctor said I can get the cast off in a few days.”

“You don’t need crutches?”

Changmin shakes his head. “No, he just said to be careful.”

They stand around in awkward silence for a while. Yunho thinks he’s probably smiling like an idiot but he can’t seem to help himself. Changmin’s gaze slides away. 

“Um,” he holds up a bag. “I bought snacks. Want to share them?”

They head to a nearby playground and sit on the swings. Yunho feels a little guilty for running off without telling Granny, but he can’t bring himself to care when Changmin opens his bag and reveals a veritable treasure trove of snacks.

“Wow,” Yunho breathes. 

Changmin gives a guilty little laugh. “I shouldn’t, but. . .they’re so hard to resist,” he says.

“Tell me about it,” Yunho says with his mouth full of strawberry muffin.

Changmin’s eyes sparkle with quiet amusement. 

They make their way through the snacks, and Changmin slowly opens up as Yunho asks him interested questions about himself. He’s fifteen and in grade 10 at a private boys school just across the river. Older than Yunho thought, but still two years younger than him. He jokingly demands that Changmin call him hyung and Changmin ducks his head with a shy laugh. He has two siblings – both girls – and his parents are both doctors, which explains the house. 

“What about you?” Changmin asks after a while. “Which school do you go to?”

“Oh, um, I – ” Yunho glances around. “Wow, it’s getting late. I should go home, Granny will be worried.”

Changmin is watching him with an unreadable expression. “Okay,” he says. He gets up and brushes crumbs off his uniform, so neat and careful it makes Yunho smile.

“You have some on your face too,” he says cheerfully.

Changmin’s hands fly to his face, but he misses the mark. Yunho laughs softly and reaches over. His thumb brushes the corner of Changmin’s mouth – and stills as Changmin sucks in a breath. 

Yunho meets his eye. Changmin looks like a deer caught in headlights and it’s pretty cute. Unable to resist, Yunho moves closer and presses a kiss to his cheek.

Changmin jerks away with a soft sound. He gives Yunho one last startled look before grabbing his things and bolting.

Yunho watches him go, frozen in surprise at his own daring, lips tingling from the soft heat of Changmin’s face.

\- - -

Yunho paces around his garden and curses himself for being an idiot. 

Changmin was probably never going to talk to him again. How could he be so impulsive? He just had to scare away the one person he might have called a friend, and all because he was too stupid to – 

“I’m sorry,” a voice says from behind him.

Yunho whirls around so fast he almost falls over. Changmin is at his gate, gazing at him with those soft brown eyes.

“F-for?” Yunho manages.

Changmin looks down. “For running off yesterday. You just – surprised me.”

Relief washes through Yunho. He gives a small laugh and bounds over to the gate. “Sorry for freaking you out. I get carried away sometimes.”

“No it’s –” Changmin’s face heats up a little. “It’s okay.”

They stand there smiling at each other for a while before Changmin glances around. “Want to go to the park again?”

Yunho’s face falls. He glances back at the house. “I want to but. . .I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I’m grounded,” Yunho says wistfully. Granny had been furious when he’d come home last night. She’d berated him for being so careless, to which Yunho had dramatically sighed and trudged off to bed.

“Oh.” Changmin looks disappointed. “Well – can I come in then?”

Yunho perks up. “Yeah! Just because I can’t go out doesn’t mean you can’t come in.”

Changmin ends up coming over every day. They do homework together, or watch movies and play video games. Granny seems to like him and doesn’t raise any objections about it.

Once or twice it gets late and Yunho worries that Changmin will get in trouble, but Changmin reassures him that his parents won’t care.

“How can they not care?” Yunho frowns.

Changmin shrugs and pops a chip in his mouth. “They never get home before midnight so I hardly see them anyway.” He chews for a while, then says thoughtfully: “I think my dad’s having an affair.”

Yunho gapes, horrified at how casually he said it. He frets about Changmin’s home life until Changmin grows annoyed and asks him why he cares so much anyway.

“Wha- I’m your friend, of course I care,” Yunho says. Changmin is lying on his bed, his head dangling off the edge, while Yunho sits on the carpet nearby. 

“ _I_ don’t even care,” Changmin says.

“Yes you do,” Yunho says softly. “You just act like you don’t to protect yourself.”

Changmin glares at him. “Oh yeah? Well what would you know, you don’t even have parents.”

Stunned silence falls. Yunho swallows and looks down, and when Changmin gets up and leaves he doesn’t say goodbye.

\- - -

Changmin finds him in his backyard the next afternoon.

Yunho had spent most of the day moping around, not in the mood to do much. He thought of taking Taepoong for a walk but didn’t have the energy, so he just sat on his back porch steps instead. Sensing his mood, Taepoong lay down next to him and let Yunho absentmindedly pat him.

The dog’s ears perk up as he hears Changmin approach. He scrambles to his feet and goes to greet him with a happy bark, and Changmin smiles and scratches his head. Taepoong loves Changmin, not least because the boy always has some sort of treat for him.

Yunho watches them but doesn’t make any move to greet him. Eventually Changmin sits down beside him with a sigh. 

A long silence follows. Yunho thinks Changmin’s probably working himself up to an apology, but what he says instead surprises him.

“Yunho?” Changmin says. “Why don’t you go to school?”

Yunho tenses. “I get home schooled,” he says.

“I know, but why?”

He has the feeling Changmin knows why but just wants to hear it for himself. 

“Why do you care?” Yunho asks, still angry with him about yesterday.

Changmin gives him a soft look. “Because,” he says. “I’m your friend.”

Yunho looks away. The dying afternoon light washes over them, elongating their shadows and burnishing Changmin’s hair gold. Yunho stares at the ground between his feet.

“I’m sick,” he says. “I have a weak heart. I can’t go to school because I need constant monitoring. I can’t go anywhere, really.”

Changmin closes his eyes. His head droops onto Yunho’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry for what I said about your parents,” he whispers. 

Yunho sighs. “It’s okay. They died a long time ago. Granny’s taken care of me for as long as I can remember.”

“I think my parents are getting a divorce,” Changmin says, voice small.

It takes Yunho a second to realise that Changmin is silently crying into his shoulder. He turns and wraps his arms around him, pulling Changmin against himself, and Changmin curls into him and holds on tight.

\- - -

“Yunho?” Changmin asks him one afternoon. “Are you going to die?”

They’re lying on his bed watching dust motes dance in a ray of sunlight. Yunho snorts softly and rolls onto his stomach.

“Everyone dies eventually.”

Changmin turns wide eyes on him. “But will you die. . .sooner?”

Yunho props his chin on his hand and looks down at Changmin. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

This prospect appears to alarm Changmin. He grabs the sleeve of Yunho’s t-shirt. “No. You can’t die.”

Yunho gazes down at him. Changmin’s school tie is lying on the floor somewhere and the top button of his shirt is undone, his hair messy and fanned out against Yunho’s sheets. He doesn’t look so prim and proper right now and it makes something hot and tight pool in Yunho’s stomach.

“I’m not going to die,” he says quietly. 

Changmin’s grip slackens, but his hand remains on Yunho’s arm. His fingers brush against Yunho’s bicep, caressing almost absently, and Yunho’s eyes follow the movement. 

It takes Changmin a moment to realise what he’s doing, and when he does he’s slow to pull away. His eyes flicker up to meet Yunho’s and he licks his lips. 

Yunho’s breath hitches. He leans down, slowly, slowly, giving Changmin time to move away. But Changmin is completely still, his eyes gradually lowering as Yunho gets closer. There’s an infinitesimal moment where they just hang there, breathless and still, and Yunho feels Changmin breathe out against his lips.

Then he closes the space between them and kisses him. Changmin’s mouth is soft and plush under his, and for a moment they’re both just still, lips pressed together and eyes squeezed shut. Then Yunho moves his lips, kisses Changmin with more purpose, and Changmin makes a soft sound and arches up into him. He mouths back at Yunho, shyly at first, then with more confidence as Yunho coaxes kisses out of him.

Yunho’s head is spinning. He lifts a hand and strokes Changmin’s cheek as they kiss, feels Changmin clutch his shoulder and draw him closer. Yunho opens his mouth and flicks his tongue out, licking at the seam of Changmin’s lips, and Changmin slowly opens for him. Yunho slips his tongue into his mouth, licking into his wet heat, and Changmin moans.

The sound goes through Yunho like fire. He presses harder, the kiss heating up until Changmin is making soft whimpers into his mouth. Yunho feels like he’s got no control – he crawls on top of Changmin and kisses him until they’re both flushed and panting and dazed. When he pulls back Changmin’s lips are red and swollen, a blush high on his cheeks as he stares up at Yunho.

“Wow,” he pants. 

“Yeah,” Yunho tries to get his breathing under control and fails. He leans down, silently asking permission to kiss him again, and this time Changmin curls a hand in his hair, yanks him down and crashes their lips together.

\- - -

One afternoon Changmin comes by and Yunho is nowhere to be found. 

He asks Granny where he is and she kindly tells him that Yunho is at the hospital for a check-up. When he gets back he’s put on bedrest for a week, the doctor having declared that his condition has suddenly taken a turn for the worse and he needs rest.

Changmin crawls into bed with Yunho and spends long hours listening to his heartbeat, their hands entwined under the covers. They don’t talk much, but sometimes Yunho catches Changmin looking at him with such fear in his eyes and hates that he can’t do anything about it.

They spend long hours kissing, pressed against each other under the covers. Yunho likes Changmin best with his lips swollen and his hair falling into his eyes and a shy, sweet smile on his face. He likes it even more when Changmin starts calling him hyung.

“What’s something you’ve always wanted to do?” Changmin asks him one afternoon. They’re curled up in Yunho’s bed facing each other. Yunho had been tracing the line of Changmin’s face, but he drops his hand and wraps it around his waist instead.

“It’s kind of dumb,” Yunho says. 

“What is it?” Changmin insists.

Yunho sighs. “I’ve always wanted to ride a bike,” he says. 

Changmin blinks. “You’ve never ridden a bike before?”

“Nope. Too much strain on my heart, so I was never allowed on one. My stupid, useless heart,” he adds a little bitterly.

Changmin puts a hand on his chest. “I like your heart,” he says.

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” Yunho asks.

Changmin smiles. “Because it chose me.”

\- - -

Changmin drops by early one morning. He’s skipping school today, he tells Yunho with a gleam in his eye, and they’re going on an adventure.

Yunho laughs and lets Changmin sneak him out of the house. He’s been cooped up for weeks and he’s sick of it. Changmin takes his hand and leads him around the street corner, where his bicycle is standing against a wall. 

Changmin gets on and pats the seat behind. 

“Get on hyung,” he says. 

Yunho falters. “Are you sure you can carry both of us?”

Changmin rolls his eyes. “Duh. Now come on!”

Yunho clambers on behind him, his heart thumping in excitement. Changmin tells him to grab his waist and takes off, cycling downhill and around the corner, past the park and across the bridge he uses to get to school.

The wind whips past Yunho and he grins in elation, cheek pressed against the back of Changmin’s school blazer.

“Okay?” Changmin asks over his shoulder, and Yunho laughs, loud and happy and free.

“Never been better.”


End file.
